2018 LINE-UP
The schedule for the Festival
AND THE WINNERS ARE…
Special Jury Prize / Children’s section
“Robbies’ Fears” by Enrique Delzer, Vashon WA
Honorable Mention / Children’s section
“Beware of the Sad Man” by Benny Goldman, Australia
Kids Audience Choice Award & First Prize / Children’s section
“Fruits of Clouds” by Kateřina Karhánková, Czech Republic
Honorable Mention/ Student
“Enough” by Anna Mantzaris, UK
First Prize/ Student
“Scent of Geranium” by Naghmeh Farzaneh, US/ Iran
Special Jury Prize
“The Box” by Dušan Kastelic, Slovenia
Special Jury Prize for the film that most exemplifies the theme of Conscious Cartoons
“Wicked Girl” by Ayce Kartal, Turkey
Honorable Mention
“The Head Vanishes” by Franck Dion, France
Audience Choice Award
“Skin For Skin” by Carol Beecher and Kevin Kurytnik, Canada
Grande Prize
“iRony” by Radheya Jegatheva, Australia
PROGRAM 1: Adult/teen friendly
Friday, September 14 @ 7:00pm
| Title | Director | Country | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Birdlime | Evan DeRushie | Canada | An exotic bird’s comically harrowing tale from capture to freedom. |
 | The Second Coming (Out of competition) | Joan Gratz | USA | The film is based on William Butler Yeats' poem The Second Coming which was written in the aftermath of the first World War, but is unfortunately relevant to our troubled times. |
 | Adija | Apollonia Thomaier & Chonlawat Thammawan / Student | USA | A young girl in the Bronx finds escape from an unhappy family life through her graffiti art. |
 | I Have a Message For You | Matan Rochlitz | UK/Italy | A film about love, loss, redemption, trauma and war, set on a train in Germany in 1943. |
 | Scent of Geranium | Naghmeh Farzaneh | USA/Iran | This film is an autobiographical account of the director's experience immigrating from Iran to the US. |
 | Weekends | Trevor Jimenez | USA | Set in 1980's Toronto, "Weekends" is the story of a young boy shuffling between the homes of his recently divorced parents. |
 | Bee box | Cable Hardin | USA | A tale of agriculture and ecoculture. As told by a bee and its box. Inspired by the research of Blue Dasher Farm. |
 | Fruits of Clouds | Martina Netíková / Student | Czech Republic | The Story of a little Furry, who will make a great discovery by overcoming the fear of the unknown. |
 | The Box | Dusan Kastelic | Slovenia | Life in the Box is boring and miserable until one day a new baby boy arrives to stir things up! |
PROGRAM 2: Adults
Friday, September 14 @ 9:00pm
| Title | Director | Country | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Hate for Sale | Ursula van den Heuvel | The Netherlands | A film inspired by the current hate, incomprehension and dehumanising emotions directed towards refugees, immigrants, gays and transsexuals, Jews, etc. It is a film which questions this hatred. |
 | Wild Woman | Vannessa Sweet | USA | Wild Woman is an animated poem to mankind which invokes current world issues such as drone-strikes and religious persecution in a plea for empathy. |
 | Pomegranete Tree | Anna Maria Mouradian / Student | Canada | A short documentary about Armenian people who are forced to disperse through the world after the harsh Genocide in 1915. |
 | My Dead Dad's Porno Tapes | Charlie Tyrell | Canada | Filmmaker Charlie Tyrell seeks to better understand his emotionally distant late-father through the personal belongings he left behind…including a stack of VHS dirty movies. |
 | JEOM | Kangmin Kim | S.Korea/ USA | A strange and wonderful story about a special connection between father and son. |
 | Wicked Girl | Ayce Kartal | Turkey | While "S" is looking back on the good old days in her grandparents' village, dark and terrifying memories emerge and, little by little, begin to make sense to her. |
 | My Yidish Papi | Éléonore Goldberg | Canada | A young woman decides not to answer a phone call from her grandfather, unaware that it will be his last. |
 | Life Cycles | Ross Hogg | United Kingdom | Using a rule-based, rhythmical structure, the film elevates the mundane, personal and relatable aspects of life whilst offsetting them with more serious, global issues which continually seep in to our lives, becoming commonplace. |
 | Belief Dictates Outcome | Grace Villaroman / Student | USA | Evette Arroyo speaks about growing up as a Latina single mother and her experience in the NYPD during the 1980s to the 2000s. |
 | The Fish Curry | Abhishek Verma | India | A young man decides to come-out to his parents by cooking and serving his father’s favorite dish, the traditional fish curry (Maacher Jhol). |
 | Sunshine Boy | Naaman Azhari | United Kingdom | This film is inspired by the real events surrounding the tragic 1999 Columbine Shooting. |
 | Late Afternoon | Louise Bagnall | Ireland | Emily finds herself disconnected from the world around her as she drifts back through her memories to relive moments from her life. |
 | Fired Up | Dan Fipphen & Elyse Kelly | USA | Fired Up depicts the origin story of President Obama’s famed “Fired up, ready to go” chant. |
KIDS PROGRAM A: Ages 8-13*
Saturday, September 15 @ 4:00pm
Kids vote for the CHILDREN’S AUDIENCE AWARD
*For this show, parents are advised to consider whether this content may upset more sensitive children.
| Title | Director | Country | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Birdlime | Evan DeRushie | Canada | An exotic bird’s comically harrowing tale from capture to freedom. |
 | Contagion | Rachel Yingzong Xin / Student | China/USA | In a black and white world, a painter comes down with a strange "colorful" illness. |
 | A Drawing | Brad Condie | USA | A young boy misses the chance to say goodbye to his dying mother. Through a deep desire he wills himself to try to see her again. |
 | Pharaoh | Derrick Forkel & Mitchell Jao / Student | USA | In a legacy of tradition, a newly ordained young Pharaoh must learn and decide what kind of ruler she wants to be for her people. |
| Scent of Geranium | Naghmeh Farzaneh | USA | An autobiographical account of the director's experience with immigration as a new chapter that can take one's own life down paths never immagined. |
 | Auuuna | Lina Sukova / student | Slovakia | A girl who's been living in fear of the monsters under her bed is swallowed up into a dark forest where she meets a friendly she-wolf who teachers her about the power of nature. |
 | Engaging Conservation Leaders | Andrea Love | USA | Stop-motion film from the Northwest Straits Initiative focused on inspiring marine conservation in Puget Sound. |
 | Motion Pictures | Matthew Incontri / Student | USA | Cancer is one obtacle that seems insurmountable, but with good friends and creative spirit it is fuel to create something bigger than yourself. |
 | Laymun | Catherine Prowse & Hannah Quinn / Student | United Kingdom | The story of a gardener in a Middle Eastern war zone, fighting the destruction around her with life-giving plants |
 | Way of Giants | Alois Di Leo | Brazil | In a forest of gigantic trees, Oquirá a six year old indigenous girl, will challenge her destiny and learn to understand the cycle of life. |
 | When I Hear the Birds Sing | Trine Vallevik Håbjørg | Norway | Five Ivorian children had to flee when war broke out in the Ivory Coast after the presidential election in 2010. The children talk about hopes and dreams for the future. |
PROGRAM 3: Adult/teen friendly
Saturday, September 15 @ 6:30pm
| Title | Director | Country | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Head Vanishes | Franck Dion | Canada | Jacqueline isn’t quite in her right mind anymore, but she’s determined to take the train to the seaside, as she does every summer. This gentle, poetic film invites us to share the journey of an elderly woman living with degenerative dementia. |
 | When I hear Birds Sing | Trine Vallevik Håbjørg | Norway | Five Ivorian children had to flee when war broke out in the Ivory Coast after the presidential election in 2010. The children talk about hopes and dreams for the future. |
 | Au revoir Balthazar | Rafael Sommerhalder | Switzerland | A scarecrow, a storm, a broken leg. The resonant sound of a sea shell. Leaving forever. |
 | Way of Giants | Alois Di Leo | Brazil | In a forest of gigantic trees, Oquirá a six year old indigenous girl, will challenge her destiny and learn to understand the cycle of life. |
 | Balance | Barzan Rostami / Student | Iran | A story about the soldiers who are sacrificing their lives and resist to help the people of the city and future generations live in peace... |
 | Drawn & Recorded: Blind Willie in Space | Drew Christie | USA | Blues artist Blind Willie Johnson lived a tragic life and died a young man but one of his recordings will live on forever.. |
 | iRony | Radheya Jegatheva / Student | Australia | A film that explores the relationship between man and technology...told from the perspective of a phone. |
 | Negative Space | Max Porter & Ru Kuwahata | France | Based on a poem by Ron Koertge, Oscar-nominated “Negative Space" depicts a father-and-son relationship through the art of packing a suitcase. |
 | Nana | Ali Kellner / Student | Canada | The story of how the director's Hungarian grandmother survived as a Jewish prisoner during the Holocaust. |
 | Gentle Mentals | Veronica Padilla | USA | Gentle Mentals shines a playful light on mental illness to soften its stigma. |
 | Ugly | Nikita Diakur | Germany | An ugly cat struggles to coexist in a fragmented and broken world, eventually finding a soulmate in a mystical chief. |
PROGRAM 4: Adults
Saturday, September 15 @ 8:30pm
| Title | Director | Country | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | In a Nutshell | Fabio Friedli | Switzerland | From a seed to war, from meat to love, from indifference to apocalypse. An attempt to capture the world in a nutshell. |
 | Tennessee | Jack Wedge / Student | USA | A story about love and the future of the world. |
 | Naked Island | Malcolm Sutherland | Canada | REALITY IS A CHOICE. An unapologetic poke at the burgeoning age of virtual reality. |
 | I Like Girls | Diane Obomsawin | Canada | Gay women reveal the nitty-gritty about their first loves, sharing tales of one-sided infatuation, mutual attraction, erotic moments, fumbling attempts at sexual expression and a joyful new self-awareness. |
 | Skin for Skin | Carol Beecher & Kevin Kurytnik | Canada | A dark allegory of greed and spiritual reckoning set during the early days of the fur trade. |
 | Wednesday with Goddard | Nicolas Menard | United Kingdom | A personal quest for spiritual enlightenment leads to romance and despair. |
 | Your Black Friend | Alex Krokus & Krystal Downs | USA | An open letter from your black friend to you about race, racism, friendship, and alienation. |
 | Voicing CSA: The Mouse | Katie Steed | United Kingdom | A film to raise awareness for Voicing CSA and The Truth Project, a charity that works to help adult survivors of child sexual abuse find their voice. |
 | Via | Izzy Burton | United Kingdom | Via shows how we should open our eyes to the good things that happen every day, to the experiences we share with those we love, and to finding silver linings even the lowest times. |
 | Half a Life | Tamara Shogaolu | Netherlands | After a traumatic encounter, a young, gay Egyptian joins the LGBT rights movement in the dangerous, oppressive, and unstable social climate of Egypt. |
 | Enough | Anna Mantzaris / Student | United Kingdom | A film about suppressed desires and moments of lost self-control. |
 | The Driver is Red | Randall Christopher | USA | Set in Argentina 1960, this true crime documentary follows the story of secret agent Zvi Aharoni as he hunted down one of the highest ranking Nazi war criminals on the run. |
KIDS PROGRAM B: Ages 8-13*
Sunday, September 16 @ 2:00pm
Kids vote for the CHILDREN’S AUDIENCE AWARD
| Title | Director | Country | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Robbie's Fears | Enrique Delzer / 13yr old Student | Vashon / USA | Robbie is a 12 year old boy who learns to overcome his fears with the help of his mother. |
 | Honesty | JC Little | Canada | A charming animated story about how to listen to your conscience, even when it's difficult. |
 | Adija | Apollonia Thomaier / Student | USA | A young girl in the Bronx finds escape from an unhappy family life through her graffiti art. |
 | Big Boom | Marat Narimanov | Russia | The history of Humanity and of our planet in four minutes |
 | Frolic and Mae | Danny Madden | USA | Outcast from her cousin's party, Mae creates Frolic — Frolic creates mayhem. |
 | Beware of the Sad Man | Benny Goldman | Australia | A sad man is faced with a happy-go-lucky guy, whose attempts at cheering him up don't seem to be making any difference. |
 | See Dyslexia | Alex Amelines | United Kingdom | Brief and uplifting introduction to dyslexia produced by the British Dyslexia Association. |
 | Hedgehog's Home | Eva Cvijanović | Canada | Based on the classic story by Branko Ćopić, from the former Yugoslavia, Hedgehog’s Home is a warm and universal tale for young and old that reminds us there truly is no place like home. |
 | Zara and The Others | Nils Johan Lund | Norway | "Zara and the Others" explores themes such as xenophobia and bullying. |
 | People | Lucas Hespenheide | USA | An introspective look at people and the things they're made of. |
 | Not One of Us (Out of competition) | Bill Jarcho & Sean Burns | USA | “Not One of Us” is an ominous warning about the perils of building walls in the name of greed, hegemony, and xenophobia. |
 | Bee Box | Cable Hardin | USA | A tale of agriculture and ecoculture. As told by a bee and its box. Inspired by the research of Blue Dasher Farm. |
 | Fruits of Clouds | Kateřina Karhánková / Student | Czech Republic | The Story of a little Furry, who will make a great discovery by overcoming the fear of the unknown. |
SPECIAL PROGRAM
Sunday, September 16 @ 4:00pm
Academy Award winning animation director Joan Gratz “live and in-person”
Joan Gratz is an American artist, animator, and filmmaker who specializes in clay painting, and is best known for her 1992 Oscar-winning film Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase.
She will present a series of her films and talk about her 50+ year career in animation. Her films range in content through painterly expressions of poetry, improvised abstraction, and animated social documentary.
Adult/teen friendly
BEST OF THE FESTIVAL
Sunday, September 16 @ 7:00pm
Awards program and screening of the winning films
Join us for the grand finale of the first Conscious Cartoons International Animation Film Festival, as we present the final accolades to the winning films:
GRANDE PRIZE
AUDIENCE AWARD
STUDENT AWARD
CHILDREN’S FILM AWARD (sponsored by Committee for Children)
CHILDREN’S AUDIENCE AWARD (picked by the kids)
MERIT AWARDS in a variety of categories
A “pay-what-you-can” show. All proceeds from this program go to The Vashon Syrian Resettlement Committee. Adult/teen friendly
